Searches intensify after body is found in Michael’s wake

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Members of a South Florida urban search and rescue team try to gain entry to a home while looking for survivors of hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A body is removed after being discovered during the search of a housing structure in the aftermath of hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

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This July 28, 2018, satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows part of Mexico Beach, Fla. Hurricane Michael swept through the Florida Panhandle town Wednesday, Oct. 10. (DigitalGlobe, a Maxar company via AP)

A member of a South Florida urban search and rescue team checks a home for survivors of hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

SevereStudios.com/Associated Press

In this image made from video and provided by SevereStudios.com, damage from Hurricane Michael is seen in Mexico Beach, Fla. on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. Search-and-rescue teams fanned out across the Florida Panhandle to reach trapped people in Michael's wake Thursday as daylight yielded scenes of rows upon rows of houses smashed to pieces by the third-most powerful hurricane on record to hit the continental U.S. (SevereStudios.com via AP)

MEXICO BEACH, FL - OCTOBER 12: The homes and businesses along US 98 are left in devastation by Hurricane Michael on October 12, 2018 in Mexico Beach, Florida. The deadly hurricane made landfall along the Florida Panhandle Wednesday as a Category 4 storm. (Photo by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images) *** BESTPIX ***

Members of City Miami Fire Rescue look for victims in houses, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Florida on October 12, 2018. - Rescue teams using sniffer dogs carried out a grim search for victims of Hurricane Michael on Friday amid fears that the death toll from the monster storm, which currently stands at 11, could rise. (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP)HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images

Members of City Miami Fire Rescue look for victims in a building in Mexico Beach, Florida, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael on October 12, 2018. - Rescue teams using sniffer dogs carried out a grim search for victims of Hurricane Michael on Friday amid fears that the death toll from the monster storm, which currently stands at 11, could rise. (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP)HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images

TOPSHOT - Claire mourns as she sees the damage caused by Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Florida on October 12, 2018. - In devastated Mexico Beach, where Hurricane Michael unleashed its most violent rains and winds, residents are taking stock of the damage, reuniting with their loved ones -- and bracing for what will be a long, difficult clean-up operation. (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP)HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images

This photo shows devastation from Hurricane Michael in this aerial photo over Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. Blocks and blocks of homes were demolished, reduced to piles of splintered lumber or mere concrete slabs, by the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

This photo shows devastation from Hurricane Michael in this aerial photo over Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. Blocks and blocks of homes were demolished, reduced to piles of splintered lumber or mere concrete slabs, by the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

MEXICO BEACH, FL - OCTOBER 12: Homes and businesses along US 98 are left in devastation by Hurricane Michael on October 12, 2018 in Mexico Beach, Florida. At least 13 people have died across the South since Hurricane Michael made landfall along the Florida Panhandle Wednesday as a Category 4 storm. (Photo by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images)

MEXICO BEACH, FL - OCTOBER 12: State Road 98 is torn up after Hurricane Michael passed through the area on October 12, 2018 in Mexico Beach, Florida. The hurricane hit the panhandle area with category 4 winds causing major damage. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Michael Crossley picks up a US National flag from his home, that was washed across the street in the background, in Port St. Joe beach, Florida, on October 13, 2018, three days after hurricane Michael hit the area. - Since Hurricane Michael roared through on October 10, a wide swath of Florida's northwest coast has been without telephone or Internet service, adding to the daunting challenges facing residents, loved ones trying to reach them, and the work crews struggling to bring them relief. A bridge was washed out between Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe to the southeast, making it impossible to get there via coastal roads. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images

Alethea Densmore watches her grandkids as she tries to salvage belongings in her apartment with family members in Port St. Joe beach, Florida, on October 13, 2018, three days after hurricane Michael hit the area. - Since Hurricane Michael roared through on October 10, a wide swath of Florida's northwest coast has been without telephone or Internet service, adding to the daunting challenges facing residents, loved ones trying to reach them, and the work crews struggling to bring them relief. A bridge was washed out between Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe to the southeast, making it impossible to get there via coastal roads. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images

This aerial photo shows debris and destruction in Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018, after Hurricane Michael went through the area on Wednesday. Mexico Beach, the ground-zero town, was nearly obliterated by the hurricane, an official said Friday as the scale of the storm's fury became ever clearer. (Bronte Wittpenn/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

MEXICO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Rescuers intensified efforts Saturday to find survivors who might be trapped amid the ruins of a small Florida Panhandle community nearly obliterated by Hurricane Michael, where one body has already been recovered, tempers are flaring, and power could be out for weeks.

Crews with dogs went door-to-door in Mexico Beach, pushing aside debris to get inside badly damaged structures in a second wave of searches following what they described as an initial, “hasty” search of the area. About 1,700 search and rescue personnel have checked 25,000 homes, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said.

Authorities say there is little doubt the death toll will rise from the storm, which made landfall Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane with 155 mph winds (249 kph) and heavy storm surge. The tally of lives lost across the South stood at 15, including the victim found in the rubble of Mexico Beach, where about 1,000 people live.

“Everything is time consuming,” said Capt. Ignatius Carroll, of the South Florida Urban Search and Rescue task force. “You don’t want to put a rush on a thorough rescue.”

More roads were passable along the storm-ravaged coast as crews cleared downed trees and power lines, but traffic lights remained out and long lines heightened tensions at one of the area’s few open gas stations.

“I want you to get back in your vehicle and stop!” one woman shouted at a man accosting her as she tried to squeeze her car between two idling vehicles at a Panama City service station running two fuel pumps on a generator.

“You’re an idiot!” the man shouted back.

About 4,000 members of Florida’s national guard have been called up to deal with the storm, including 500 added on Saturday. Nearly 2,000 law-enforcement officials have been sent into the Panhandle.

Schools will stay closed indefinitely, a hospital halted operations and sent 200 patients to hospitals elsewhere in Florida and in Alabama, and more than 253,000 customers in the Panhandle remain without power.

“Everybody just needs to help each other right now,” Scott said after meeting with emergency responders in the Panama City area.

“You feel sorry for people,” Scott said. “They might have lost their house. They worry about their kids getting into school. You know, people don’t sit and have a whole bunch of extra money in the bank just waiting for a disaster.”

Some residents were packing up and getting as far away as they could.

Jeff and Katrina Pearsey, with a ruined rental home in the Panama City area and no indication of when they could again earn a living, said they were heading to Bangor, Maine, where Katrina once worked as a nurse. Several trees came down on their property, including one that smashed through the roof.

Michael was one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever make landfall in the U.S. While most residents fled ahead of the storm’s arrival, others stayed to face the hurricane. Some barely escaped with their lives as homes were pushed off their foundations and whole neighborhoods became submerged.

Hector Morales, a 57-year-old restaurant cook, never even thought of evacuating. His mobile home wasn’t on the beach but when it suddenly began floating during the hurricane, he jumped out and swam to a fishing boat and clambered aboard.

“I lost everything,” Morales said. “But I made it.”

How many others were not so fortunate was still not clear. By one count, state officials said, 285 people in Mexico Beach defied mandatory evacuation orders and stayed behind. It’s unclear how many people stayed behind in nearby communities.

One who did, Albert Blackwell, was preparing on Saturday to cover holes in the roof of his apartment and take a chain saw to trees that fell and broke his windows just outside Panama City.

“I’m the idiot that rode it out here in this place,” said Blackwell, 65, sweat dripping from his face. He doesn’t plan to leave; he wants to protect his home from looters.

Emergency officials said they’ve received thousands of calls asking about missing people, but with cellphone service out across a wide area, they found it impossible to know who among those unaccounted for were safe but just unable to dial out to friends or family.

Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Brock Long said he expected the death toll to rise. Searchers were trying to determine if the person found dead in Mexico Beach had been alone or was part of a family.

Authorities have set up distribution centers to dole out food and water to victims. They’ve also set up a triage tent to treat residents stepping on nails and cutting themselves on debris.

President Donald Trump announced plans to visit Florida and hard-hit Georgia early next week but didn’t say what day he would arrive. On Saturday he approved federal disaster aid relief for four Alabama counties affected by the storm.

While Trump's relationship with much of his base remains strong, two years after his inauguration his ties are fraying with some voters, the kind who voted in droves for Trump in 2016 in key pockets throughout the industrial Midwest and flipped previously Democratic states to him.